DETROIT — His title, combined with parenthood, can lead to repetition.

On Father’s Day, some parishioners have a message for the Rev. William (Bill) Spencer III: “Happy Father’s Day, father.”

He became a Catholic priest in 2007 — three years after Margaret Mary Spencer, his wife of 44 years, died — and is dad to three adult children and grandpa to six.

“I have to get used to calling him ,’Father father,’ “ Spencer recalled one of his kids saying soon after he was ordained.

Spencer, 81, is pastor of Holy Name of Mary Parish, which is composed of two churches that recently merged — Our Lady of Lake Huron in Harbor Beach and St. Anthony of Padua in Helena, both in the Thumb of Michigan. He also oversees Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic School, which teaches kindergarten through eighth grade.

“I’m going to keep working as long as I can,” he told the Free Press. On Monday, which he calls “a day away, not a day off,” he often celebrates mass at Christ the King Catholic Church, his home parish in Ann Arbor.

“I can’t believe for someone his age the hours he keeps,” said parishioner Debbie Oglenski, 61, of Harbor Beach. “I don’t know where he finds the energy because I can’t keep up with him.”

Sometimes he will be in and out of the church until midnight and up again for 8 a.m. mass, and if he gets a late-night knock on his door or is called to the hospital in middle of the night, he’ll go, people who know him said.

Spencer, who moved to Ann Arbor from Pennsylvania in 1981 and retired from his job at Detroit Edison, has officiated 66 weddings and 123 funerals and performed 155 baptisms since becoming a priest, according to church records.

“It sometimes amazes me that I am here where I am with kids and grandkids and having been married,” he said.

While rare, his situation is not unheard of in the state.

Of approximately 900 active Catholic priests in the state, there are about six currently working in Michigan who were married, then widowed prior to becoming a priest, according to church officials across the state.

Spencer’s decision to join the priesthood after his wife died didn’t surprise those who know him the best. They say he’s always been active in the church.

“We’ve seen for ourselves growing up how he’s close with the church and close with God,” said his youngest daughter, Elizabeth Gava. “He’s not one to be idle. ... He’s happiest when he’s guiding people and helping people.”

Margaret Logan, his oldest daughter, said attending church as kids was a priority, even while on vacation.

On one trip, family members — including extended family — were traveling in two cars when there was a dead deer in the road in Snow Shoe, Pa.

It was winter, her dad hit it and the car became disabled, Logan recalled.

“The problem was this was on a Saturday night,” she said. “Sunday morning, we have to go to church.”

Missing mass, she said, was not an option, so nine family members piled in the single working car.

“We got to church,” she said, laughing.

Her two sons, Spencer’s oldest grandchildren, said they know there aren’t many people who have a grandpa as a priest.

It often raised questions like “They can’t do that, can they?” and requires a story — one grandchildren Matt Logan, 21, and his brother, Sean Logan, 25, have told before — with details of how it came to be.